OpenAI Launches Commercial Operations in Brazil, Its Second-Largest Developer Market

OpenAI has launched commercial operations in Brazil, opening a São Paulo-based team to serve businesses, developers, researchers, and public institutions in one of its three largest markets by weekly active ChatGPT users.

The announcement anchors OpenAI's most concrete commitment yet to Latin America's largest economy. Brazilian users now send approximately 215 million messages to ChatGPT each day, and the number of users in the country has nearly doubled over the past year.

CEO Sam Altman framed the expansion as a long-term bet on Brazilian builders.

"The most exciting part isn't just the scale of adoption. It's the creativity and the energy behind it. Brazil has an extraordinary community of entrepreneurs, businesses and developers that are finding distinct ways to put AI to work and building in Brazil for Brazil. That's why we're deepening our presence here. This is a long-term commitment to working alongside the Brazilian ecosystem to ensure that AI creates meaningful economic and social value across the country. I'm very excited about what we can build together in Brazil."

— Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI

The economic stakes

An independent study by RegLab, funded by OpenAI, estimates that AI could add nearly R$1 trillion to Brazil's economy by 2030. OpenAI acknowledges that capturing that value requires more than access to technology; it also requires skills, research, responsible deployment, and close collaboration with Brazilian institutions.

The company's country-level data shows Brazilians are already moving from experimentation to daily work use. In June 2026, 35% of classified messages from individual ChatGPT accounts in Brazil were work-related, compared with 30% globally. Of those work-related messages, 53% asked ChatGPT to complete a task or produce an output—from drafting proposals and analyzing information to writing code and creating marketing materials.

OpenAI points to small entrepreneurs as evidence of the shift. Jewelry designer Lina Prades began using ChatGPT for social media content, then expanded it to advertising, pricing, inventory, and production. With no technical background, she built two management apps—one now supports her daily operations, and the other could become a product for other jewelers. Ariane Santos, who runs Tapioca da Ari, uses ChatGPT to develop recipes, refine menus, and communicate more consistently with customers.

A developer ecosystem scaling fast

By number of developers using the OpenAI API, Brazil ranks second globally. It is Codex's largest market in Latin America. Since the beginning of 2026, weekly Codex users in Brazil have grown more than elevenfold, and daily interactions have increased nearly thirtyfold.

Enterprise adoption is accelerating in parallel. ChatGPT Enterprise seats in Brazil have increased fivefold year over year, and Brazil ranks among OpenAI's ten largest markets by number of business customers. Brazilian companies already use OpenAI technology across financial services, commerce, mobility, customer service, software development, and internal operations, according to the company.

Institutional partnerships

Alongside the commercial launch, OpenAI announced a set of collaborations with Brazilian organizations:

• ITA: OpenAI is partnering with the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica to provide ChatGPT Edu accounts for students, faculty, and staff, plus credits for advanced capabilities including reasoning models and Codex.
• Research: Through OpenAI's global grants program, the Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA) will study what research institutions need to translate AI access into scientific progress. The Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP) will evaluate a people-first clinical information infrastructure prototype for Brazil's public health system, designed to preserve physician judgment and human oversight.
• Legal sector literacy: OpenAI and ENTER, a Brazilian AI unicorn in the legal sector, are developing a national AI literacy program for legal professionals, combining ChatGPT use with training on critical, safe, and effective AI use.
• Small business training: Together with Estímulo, OpenAI is developing free, mobile-first AI training for micro and small-business owners covering marketing, sales, customer service, finance, productivity, and management.
• Public services: OpenAI and the city of São Paulo, through municipal technology company Prodam, signed a memorandum of understanding to make AI available to São Paulo and other public administrations across Brazil.

courting the developer community

In the week before the launch, OpenAI held its first OpenAI para Devs roadshow, bringing together 285 developers, startup engineers, founders, and technical creators in Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis, and São Paulo. Delivered entirely in Portuguese, the program included technical presentations, live Codex demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and sessions with local partners Adapta and Brendi.

The roadshow ended with the OpenAI Hackathon Brasil, a full-day event in São Paulo where developers built projects with Codex around Brazilian needs. The winning team built a prototype that helps micro and small businesses find public procurement opportunities. Using public data, the tool lets entrepreneurs describe their businesses by voice, matches their profiles with relevant opportunities and eligibility requirements, and maps nearby public-sector demand.

A creative, not just consumptive, market

Brazil has the world's highest rate of ChatGPT Images use and ranks among the five largest markets for voice and dictation. Weekly voice users in the country have doubled over the past year.

OpenAI highlighted a collaboration with Alcione, one of Brazil's most iconic artists, who explored ChatGPT Voice in a playful conversation about love and relationships. The company also held its first-ever Creators Day in São Paulo.

Among the creators OpenAI named: visual artist Dell Nunes, who uses AI to portray Brazil's diversity and urban periphery communities with local cultural references; Paulo Aguiar, who works across text, images, video, and music while keeping human creative direction central; and Thaís Martan, who plans to use ChatGPT Work during a journey by catamaran.

OpenAI describes its work in Brazil as a two-way exchange—making its technology more accessible while learning from a community whose cultural context could shape how people use ChatGPT globally.

The company is hiring for the São Paulo team, with open positions listed on its careers page. With a R$1 trillion economic projection on the table and Codex usage growing nearly thirtyfold in daily interactions since the start of 2026, the São Paulo operation gives OpenAI a direct channel to convert Brazil's outsized adoption into enterprise revenue and institutional footholds before competitors consolidate their own positions in the region.